Princess Diana WOULD still have done an impressive interview even if she hadn't been duped by disgraced BBC man Martin Bashir – but it might not have been so inflammatory, claims royal writer Tina Brown
- The TV interview with Bashir was watched by 23 million people in 1995
- Diana told now disgraced journalist 'there were three people in this marriage'
Princess Diana would still have done an impressive interview even if she hadn't been duped by BBC journalist Martin Bashir, claims royal writer Tina Brown.
The late Royal's TV interview with Bashir was watched by 23 million people in 1995 and caused a global media frenzy.
She told Bashir 'there were three people in this marriage' – a reference to then Prince Charles's affair with Camilla Parker Bowles, now Queen Consort.
By then, Diana and Charles had been separated for three years and would divorce in 1996.
It later emerged that to secure access to the princess, Bashir showed her brother, Earl Spencer, fake bank statements showing that his former head of security had received money from tabloids and the security services to spy on his sister.
Once he gained access, Bashir told Diana a series of lies, convincing her that Prince Charles was having an affair with then-royal nanny Tiggy Legge-Bourke and that she became pregnant and had an abortion as a result.
However, Ms Brown, 70, who has published a series of books about Diana and the royal family, believes the princess would still have spoken to the press even if she had not been misled by Bashir.
Princess Diana would still have done an impressive interview even if she had not been duped by BBC journalist Martin Bashir, claims royal writer Tina Brown.
The late Royal's TV interview with Bashir was watched by 23 million people in 1995 and caused a global media frenzy
She told the Scandal Mongers podcast: 'I believe that Diana still said everything she wanted to say in that interview, and I actually believe that she would have given an interview to someone else. wanted to unload all that.
“But maybe it wouldn't have been the kind of bridge-burning tension it was if she hadn't had the illusion that all those people were spying on her.”
Bashir also ordered false bank statements purporting to show how payments into the account of Diana's private secretary, Patrick Jephson, were made by intelligence services monitoring Diana's movements.
Mr Jephson resigned in January 1996 after what he later called a “very awkward” final meeting with Diana.
In 2022, the BBC paid him significant compensation and apologized 'unreservedly'.
Speaking about the incident involving Ms Legge-Bourke, who she approached at a party and said 'sorry about the baby' under the false belief she had been pregnant with Charles' child, Ms Brown added: 'That all sounded like that's how she went. , you know, crazy, basically.
Ms. Brown's most recent book, The Palace Papers: Inside the House of Windsor, the Truth and the Turmoil, was published in 2022
“But of course we now understand that Charles had told her that Tiggy Legge-Bourke had aborted a child and that Patrick Jephson was her chief spy.”
A bombshell report revealed that Bashir lied to obtain his interview with Diana.
The independent investigation found the disgraced journalist used 'deceptive' methods which were later covered up by a 'woefully ineffective' internal investigation by Tony Hall, who later became director general of the BBC.
Ms. Brown's most recent book, The Palace Papers: Inside the House of Windsor, the Truth and the Turmoil, was published in 2022.
In 2007 she published the biographical work The Diana Chronicles.